Goseck circle
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The Goseck circle is a Neolithic structure in Goseck in the district of Weissenfels in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It consists of a set of concentric ditches 75 meters (246 feet) across. When it was first made public in August 2003, it was called the earliest ritual site of Central Europe. Interpretations of the ring suggest that European Neolithic and Bronze Age people measured the heavens far earlier and more accurately than historians have thought. German media has called the site "German Stonehenge," although many British enthusiasts refuse the use of the term henge for anything outside Britain. (See henge.)
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[edit] Discovery
First sign of the circle was a 1991 aerial survey photograph that showed circular ridges under a wheat field. The crop marks were easy to see in a season of drought. Francois Bertemes and Peter Biehl of the University of Halle-Wittenberg began a major excavation of the site in 2002. When archaeologist combined the evidence with GPS observations, they noticed that the two southern openings marked the beginning of the summer and winter solstices.
[edit] Context
The circle at Goseck is one of more than 250 carefully excavated ring-ditches in Germany, Austria and Croatia that aerial surveys have identified, though archaeologists have investigated barely 10% of them. Previously they thought that the enclosures might have been fortifications and were puzzled by the fact that there was no sign of buildings inside the circles.
Not all precisely laid-out Neolithic and Bronze Age European religious, calendrical or astronomical circles were stone circles of megaliths or standing stones; Stonehenge is atypical example. Even the Stonehenge site was preceded by a ditch-and-bank enclosure with later-added timbers; their postholes remain. (An archaeologist might tell you that nothing is more permanent than a hole in the ground. When, for example, a posthole is left unused, it will fill with sediments of a later date, creating a characteristic pattern in an archaeological dig.)
[edit] Description
Goseck ring is the first one that is well preserved and extensively investigated and its astronomical significance is clear. In the first opening of the site a state archaeologist Harald Meller called it a milestone in archaeological research.
Traces of the original configuration reveal that the Goseck ring consisted of four concentric circles, a mound, a ditch and two wooden palisades. Palisades had three sets of gates facing southeast, southwest and north. At the winter solstice, watchers at the center would have seen the sun rise and set through the southeast and southwest gates. The date of the circle is established by potsherds at the site, whose linear designs, when compared to standard chronologies of pottery styles, suggest that the observatory was built ca 4900 BCE.
Archaeologists have a general agreement about the cultural nexus that produced the Circle, the so-called Stroke-Ornamented Pottery Culture. Goseck circle was used for astronomical observation that was combined with calendar calculations to coordinate an easily judged lunar calendar with the more demanding measurements of a solar calendar, embodied in a spiritual religious context in the contemporary culture. Beyond these generalities some contentious disagreement begins. Archaeologists disagree on whether the all circles were used for the same purpose. Pseudoarchaeologists speak about dramatic universal connections.
The arc between openings in the Goseck ditches corresponds closely with a (formerly) gilded arc on the rim of the Nebra skydisk that was found some 25 km away.
[edit] Other observations
Excavators also found signs of burning fires, animal and human bones and a headless skeleton near the southeastern gate, possibly a sign of consecration sacrifice.
There is no sign of fire or other signs of destruction, so the reason why the site was abandoned is unknown. Later villagers built a defensive moat following the ditches of the old enclosure.
[edit] Current status
Bertemes and Biehl have continued the excavation for a few weeks each year. In 2004 a group from the University of California, Berkeley joined the ongoing dig, giving it an international scope.
Archaeologists and state officials have reconstructed the wooden palisade of the circle. Woodworkers worked by hand so that the wooden posts would look more authentic. The site was opened to public on 21 December 2005.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Ulrich Boser - Solar Circle (Archaeology Magazine July/August 2006)
[edit] External links
- Scientific American December 2003:"Circles for space: German 'Stonehenge' marks oldest observatory."
- The article states "Perhaps the observatory's most curious aspect is that the roughly 100-degree span between the solstice gates corresponds with an angle on a bronze disk unearthed on a hilltop 25 kilometers away, near the town of Nebra. The Nebra disk, measuring 32 centimeters in diameter, dates from 1600 B.C. and is the oldest realistic representation of the cosmos yet found. It depicts a crescent moon, a circle that was probably the full moon, a cluster of seven stars interpreted to represent the Pleiades, scattered other stars and three arcs, all picked out in gold leaf from a background rendered violet-blue--apparently by applying rotten eggs."
